Third MSA Class and Meeting

Ousman continued teaching the MSA class on March 22nd again in RBN 2012 at 1 p.m. from where he had left of last time, and continues to use Surah al-Baqarah to go more in depth with talking about the people.

Ousman recapped the last lecture, in which he talked about patience. He then moves on to mention that there are only a handful of friends who you can have a truthful conversation with. Human beings currently are at lost, except for those who believe in god and do good deeds. The ayat is number 77 in surah al Baqarah, where it talks about what is considered good in Islam and describes the three kinds of people who are: believers, disbelievers and hypocrites (both the believers and the disbelievers have a long description, while the hypocrites have a shorter explanation).

The subject of the lecture shifted to the story of Adam and Iblees or Satan, which is an example of not believing and what it means to be a hypocrite. Iblees is considered a hypocrite, because on the outside he believed in Allah, but on the inside he had disbelief (which is shirk) when he thought that he was better than Allah’s creation.

Adam was considered the most noble creation of Allah, and he was the first man, and the children of Israel first nation given the law and were an example to everyone . The Children of Israel were blessed, because they had so many prophets to teach them to be role models to mankind. However, within the people of Israel, there have been stories of that confirm belief, hypocrisy and disbelief. Some people argued that the people of Israel took their blessings for granted, because some were prosecuted, while others were murdered. Isa or Jesus was the last prophet who came from the people of Israel, who tried to call them to Islam, but the people of Israel were strong headed.

The story of Ibrahim (Abraham) is important, because it forces the believers to remember that their own prophet was a descendant of Ibrahim, including the prophet Muhammad. Ibrahim was the one who built the Quibla (or the Ka’ba), because before the Muslims used to pray towards Jerusalem, and then they faced the Ka’ba to pray. The lesson of this story is that goodness is not turning your faces to the east or the west, because when the Quibla changes the direction of prayer, Allah reminds us that goodness is not based on one thing.